SSKM to prepare data of patients requiring organ transplantations

Kolkata: In a unique initiative, the SSKM Hospital will prepare a comprehensive data on the patients requiring organ transplantations.

This proposed method will be started at the SSKM Hospital on pilot basis and will later be adopted by the other medical colleges in the city. The hospital authorities will also engage an organisation to carry out survey on the patients. The new move will make the entire procedure more effective and the success rate of cadaver transplantation at the only state-run superspecialty hospital SSKM will go up, the hospital officials believe. According to a senior official of the hospital, it has been found over time that in case of cadaver transplantation, the success rate is slightly lower than the cases where the recipients are directly getting the organs from the living donors.

It is presumed that in case of cadaver transplantations, it takes a long time to transfer an organ from one hospital to another after the legal formalities are done. After a patient is declared brain-dead by the competent authorities, his or her organs are extracted after obtaining permission from the family members of the donors. Then the organs may be taken to other hospitals according to the requirements of patients. The organs are then transplanted on other patients after carrying out necessary tests to determine certain things including blood group. It often takes a long time to complete these formalities. As a result of this, sometimes the patients die even after the transplantation is performed on the recipient successfully.

In the most recent incident that occurred at the SSKM on last Friday, two patients who were successfully transplanted a kidney and a liver died later even after the surgery was done successfully. Presently, the names of the patients willing to receive organs are asked to come down to the hospital when one donates his or her organs. After coming down to the hospital, all these patients do not always get organs. Only the recipient whose blood group and other necessary factors matches that of the donors gets the organs. All the examinations are performed after the recipients are in the hospital. This causes an unnecessary delay in the whole process putting the life of the recipients in risk.

Keeping this in mind and to make the process more effective, the SSKM authorities have decided to prepare a comprehensive database after carrying out a detailed survey on the patients who are interested in organ transplantation. The patients requiring an organ transplantation have to enroll their names with SSKM Hospital and have to furnish all details to the hospital including his/her blood group, contact number, full address, the patient's age and sex as well as a brief history of the patient. Once the hospital has all these information of the recipients, it will call up those whose credentials would match the donor's. This will also help the doctors to carry out the operations quickly and effectively.